


This Suburban Life

by fleurlb



Category: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV)
Genre: Gen, Inspired by Disney, Singing, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-05 14:43:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16812733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurlb/pseuds/fleurlb
Summary: Valencia longs for so much more than this suburban life.





	This Suburban Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bluemoonrune](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemoonrune/gifts).



Valencia waited for her assistants on the edge of the outdoor mall. They weren't late, exactly, but Valencia was early and not in the best mood. She felt constrained. She took a few steps, surveying her surroundings and began to sing.

“Small suburb,  
It's a boring place  
Every day  
Like the one before  
Small suburb  
Full of little people  
Waking up to say.....”

She did a dramatic twirl, caught in the moment, as a crowd of shoppers rushed past her. “Hey, what's up? Hey, hey,”

Valencia turned the corner and spotted the mall's security guard doing his rounds. 

“There goes the security guard like always  
The same ol' route and kids to yell at  
Every morning just the same  
Since I was old enough to shop here alone  
In this boring small suburban mall”

“Hey, Valencia,” said the security guard.

“Hey, Bob,” said Valencia, nonchalantly reading his name off his brass-plated name tag. 

“Can you believe this weather?” asked Valencia, making the same small talk that she always made with strangers at the mall.

“I know, right? Sunny and 75 degrees every day,  
It's a paradise, isn't it?  
We're blessed to live here.  
Where you off to?”

“To the party supply store. I have three 21st birthday parties to stock up for.” Valencia held up her planning book, thick with post-it notes and receipts. 

“Good luck with that,” replied the security guard as he turned and stalked off to shout at a group of teenagers who were using the fountain for parkour. 

Valencia sighed as her assistants caught up with her. She greeted them and then turned and walked briskly to the party supply store, the girls struggling to keep up with her. She could hear their heels clacking on the fake cobblestones, and she could also hear a murmur from the other shoppers.

“Look there she goes, that girl is driven, no question  
Fierce and fantastic, can't you tell?  
Never part of any crowd  
'Cause she's always working too damn hard  
No denying she's a driven girl, Valencia”

Valencia paused in front of the party supply store to give one of her assistants a chance to catch up and pull it open. She twirled into the store, singing “There must be more than this suburban life!”

The inside of the party supply store was brightly lit and full of balloons and garish wall decorations. Valencia walked up and down each aisle, inspecting everything and picturing what each item could add to the party. She could see the party inside her head, but she could also see her clients' budgets, like little ledgers. She knew exactly how much each could spend and who could afford, and wouldn't mind, to go over the budget. When she was ready, she marched to the counter and opened her planning book. 

“Hey Joyce,” said Valencia, taking a peek at the plastic name tag of the bored-looking sales associate.

“Hi Valencia, how's the party-planning business treating you?”

“Not too bad. I can't complain. If I nail Missy Flanagan's 21st, I think I have a shot at planning her mom's 50th!” 

“You have such goals.”

Valencia wasn't sure whether the girl was being sarcastic, so she gave a tight smile and placed her orders for the three parties, paid for the orders, and carefully placed the receipts into her party planning book. 

Back out in the mall with its swirl of shoppers, Valencia walked more slowly, checking off items in her party planning book. The shoppers paused for a moment to dance and sing around Valencia, who was determined not to notice them.

“Look there she goes, that girl is so ambitious  
I wonder if she's feeling well  
With a dreamy, far-off look  
Planning parties in that book  
What a puzzle is this Valencia.”

Valencia sat down at the fountain, which had been cleared of the parkour kids by the security guard. An assistant sat down on each side of her, and each craned their necks, trying to catch a glimpse of what was making Valencia smile as she flipped the pages of the party planning book.

“Oh, isn't this amazing?  
It's my favorite thing because you'll see  
We can reuse all the balloons  
And still charge for balloon expenses from all three!”

Valencia stood up and gave her assistants instructions for the rest of the day. She had a plan to meet Rebecca and Heather for coffee. 

Her assistants watched her walk away, then they sang.

“Now it's no wonder that her name means Brave  
Her fierceness has no parallel  
But behind that mean facade  
I'm afraid she's rather odd  
Very different from the rest of us  
She's nothing like the rest of us  
Yes, different from us is this Valencia!”

Valencia walked to the outdoor cafe, where Rebecca was waiting with a giant mug of coffee. 

“Hey,” said Rebecca with a wave that was just on the right side of maniacal. 

“Hey,” replied Valencia, sitting down with a small sigh. “Is that your third coffee?”

“Only my second. Only my second. The barista is under strict orders not to serve me anymore. I ordered you a chai latte, oat milk, sugar-free syrup, just the way you like it. Heather is going to be late, so she can order her own coffee when she gets here.”

“Yeah, no one can order coffee like Heather,” said Valencia, then she slipped into a pitch-perfect deadpan imitation of their friend. “I want a black coffee, as black and endless as my soul.”

The barista arrived with Valencia's drink. She took a sip, waiting for the calming chai to hit her bloodstream, but mostly she felt unsettled and unhappy.

“What's going on, Valencia? You seem kind of bummed or something.” Rebecca held the giant mug in her hands. 

“I don't know, Rebecca. I should be on top of the world. My party-planning business is really taking off. You wouldn't believe the conversion rate I have from advertising on Facebook. I've got the 21st birthday market all sewn up and I'm about to break into the 50th birthday party market, but....” Valencia trailed off and looked around, judging the outdoor mall and finding it severely lacking.

“Sounds like you want more from life.”

Valencia rolled the words around in her head, considering them like she was inspecting an order of Mardi Gras beads for a rocking party. “You're right. I want so much more than this suburban life. It's too easy. I want to plan birthday parties for celebrities and bat mitzvahs for the daughters of ladies who lunch and second-weddings for wealthy businessmen.”

“And you don't think you can find that here?” 

Valencia shook her head. “This might sound crazy, but I think I'd like to go to New York City.”

Rebecca frowned. “It doesn't sound crazy. I have heard it said that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”

“I know. And I think I could. I really think I could. I mean, you were something in New York City, right?” Valencia leaned forward, pleading her case. 

“I was something in the legal world. Which is not exactly the same thing as what you want. The legal world is a bit smaller, nerdier, you know.” Rebecca shrugged.

Valencia took a few more sips of her delicious and perfectly ordered chai latte. She could feel the beginning of a plan forming in her mind, ideas slotting together like the diagrams for a piece of Ikea furniture. She placed her mug on the table.

“Rebecca, would you have any contacts you could put me in touch with in New York City? I'd be willing to start at the bottom, as an.....assistant even. I just want to get my foot in the door.” 

“Oh wow, Valencia. That's a huge move. Super-brave. I'll need to think about it. I mean, I would be so bummed if you went away to New York City. I'd be losing like 33% of my best friends, you know?”

Valencia pressed her lips into what she hoped was a sympathetic smile. “I know, Rebecca, I know. But think of the epic girls' weekends we could have when you came to visit.”

Rebecca's face lit up and Valencia could practically see her paging through her mental list of contacts. She knew that within hours, she'd have a stack of decent leads and all it would take would be some good old-fashioned hard work to get her foot in the door somewhere. She could feel step one of her plan sliding into place and knew that she was cut out for so much more than this suburban life.


End file.
